Volvo adds Google Gemini to EX60 and outlines HuginCore compute strategy

Volvo is adding Google’s Gemini conversational AI to the EX60 to provide a natural, voice-driven assistant, the company told Ars Technica.

The feature is part of Volvo’s wider Hugin compute strategy. Volvo says HuginCore brings a flexible compute platform with access to sensors and actuators so the company can evolve vehicle software over time. Nvidia’s Drive AGX Orin system-on-a-chip and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8255 are both used to provide high and flexible inference compute for AI-based algorithms, Volvo said.

Volvo engineering lead Bakkenes said the company intends to keep the majority of its fleet on the latest software baselines, and described a "superset tech stack" and manifest-based configuration that lets much of the same code be deployed toward SPA2 and SPA3 hardware variants. He would not say whether HuginCore will be included in the midlife refresh for SPA2 cars such as the EX90, though those SUVs do feature the same Nvidia Orin chip.

Volvo said Gemini in the EX60 will enable common voice tasks such as navigation and music selection and allow more vague, conversational requests. The company framed Hugin as a foundation to evolve those agentic AI capabilities over time; beyond that, Volvo’s longer-term plans were not detailed in the interview.

Key Topics

Tech, Volvo, Google Gemini, Hugincore, Nvidia Orin